Holidays

“ALL of my followers need to see these strawberry pancakes. I don’t care if they’re robots.” (Thinkstock)

From the rainpocalpyse that left the Bay Area soggy and wet to the film industry’s nightmare of a hack, you may have missed the latest and greatest in tech this week. Don’t fret, we have this week’s news digest nice and ready for you:

Instagram painted a clear picture of what’s ahead for social this week when it announced it now has 300M monthly users. But wait, where are all of my followers disappearing to?

The holidays are upon us, you’ve decorated your tree, the stockings are hung… but have you decorated your beard yet? Movember is taken to a whole new level with beard baubles.

Never worry about disturbing your cube mates with your 80’s pop music again! This new speaker “beams” isolated tunes just for you.

It’s been a short week leading up to Thanksgiving, but that didn’t stop us from cooking up five juicy news bullets for your gobbling pleasure. Already regret writing that.

While you gather with friends and loved ones this weekend to reflect on all that you’re thankful for, we can tell you with certainty what Lyft is thankful for: Uber’s PR nightmare. The ride-share service reported its biggest week for rides ever following one of Uber’s roughest.

Speaking of turkeys, now you can vote via Twitter on which one should spend the rest of its days in genteel luxury in Virginia, and which should end up on Obama’s Thanksgiving table… May the odds be ever in their favor.

We all know creating trash is central to American values, but one startup is determined to ensure our turkey scraps don’t go to waste. You can thank the cloud, Big Data and several other buzzwords.

If department stores have taught us anything, it’s that Christmas basically starts right after Halloween – so hurry up and finish that turkey because ’tis the season to be shopping. PSFK’s 2014 Gift Guide includes unique wearables and smart gadgets like posture sensors that essentially scold you for slouching. Our favorite is the stress tracker that tells you when…you’re stressed…? We need it!

Still not satiated? Connect with us @BlancandOtus to stay on top of the latest in tech and media, although personally, we’re going cold turkey on it until Monday. Enjoy the break!